Johann Neudörffer the Elder

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Portrait of the Nuremberg scribe Johann Neudörffer and a pupil , by Nicolas Neufchâtel , Nuremberg around 1561

Johann Neudörffer the Elder (* October 1497 in Nuremberg ; † November 12, 1563 ibid) was a German typist and arithmetic master in Nuremberg.

Neudörffer was the most important and influential writer (contemporary: "milliner") of his time. As such, he played a decisive role in the development of the German Fraktur script and, as the author of basic textbooks, exerted a strong influence on art education on students from all over the German-speaking area. The high esteem Neudörffer enjoyed during his lifetime is reflected, among other things, in the fact that he was commissioned by Albrecht Dürer to write the texts on his apostle pictures .

life and work

Neudörffer was the son of the Nuremberg furrier Stephan Neudörffer, a man who traveled widely in the course of his business. As his teachers in writing and arithmetic, he mentions Caspar Schmidt, the father-in-law and later executor of the famous carver Veit Stoss , and the clerk Paulus Vischer.

With his book Fundament ... his students made to underwrite , Neudörffer published the first writing sample book north of the Alps at the age of twenty-two. This short work, which has only survived in a few copies today, consists of four vertical-format folio sheets printed on one side with woodcuts, on which Neudörffer introduces the writing of Kurrent and Fraktur fonts using various text examples . With this sample book, Neudörffer created the basis for the German print script, the Fraktur, which prevailed into the 19th century, and at the same time contributed to the development of German cursive script.

The title page of Neudörffer's main work, published in 1538

In 1538, Neudörffer's main work, Gute Ordnung und Kurz Studium ... Zierlichs schreybens appeared . The examples contained therein come from the practical teaching activities of Neudörffers, who had set up a boarding school for foreign students in his house. The book begins with pen exercises, which Neudörffer attaches great importance to before practicing the first letters: When you want to act with the right order, you measure an empty boy with ubunng these lines and braid, before he then learns to make Ainic letters, to train and make light . In contrast to the books of other scribes, Neudörffer's explanatory text is limited to the bare essentials; instead, the focus is on practical exercise. This also applies to the so-called "certifications" with which Neudörffer demonstrates the genetic development of writing and at the same time turns it into a practical, technical exercise. Werner Doede rates this as "a genuinely artistic pedagogy that aims to educate those who are to be educated by means of self-education and to educate them to become 'educated'". In addition to a manuscript on parchment that served as the manuscript for the etched copper plates of the volume (today in the Nuremberg City Library as Hert. Mss. 23b ), only a few prints made by Neudörffer himself have survived. These fluctuate in their scope, as Neudörffer printed the copies as required and constantly adapted and changed their content.

In 1544 Neudörffer published a thin booklet in quarto format with the title Instructions and Actual Report on how to choose, prepare, divide, cut and temper each keel for writing, and in 1549 the book Conversation Book of Two Pupils How One Instructs the Other in Delicate Writing . The latter was initially intended for his sons' lessons, but was then published at the request of Neudörffer's brother-in-law, Johann Petrejus, a book printer. Neudörffer's book, which was written in October 1547 - supposedly within eight days “during the night” - News from the most distinguished artists and workers who lived in Nuremberg within a hundred years contains information on 79 Nuremberg citizens and is not only for the city history of Nuremberg, but also of great importance for art history. This work was also not intended for printing by Neudörffer and only appeared in the Articles on Art and Literature History of Joseph Heller in 1822 and six years later in an edition edited by Friedrich Kampe.

In the last phase of his life, Neudörffer dealt increasingly with questions of arithmetic and geometry - based on an apprenticeship with the cartographer Erhard Etzlaub as an arithmetic master . However, Neudörffer's mathematical writings are not known. The claim that in 1598 by his pupil Caspar Schleupner published arithmetic book arithmetic book Auff lines. Verbatim as posed ( VD 16 S 2993) was printed according to a manuscript by Neudörffers, but cannot be verified.

family

Neudörffer was married twice. Initially since around 1522 with Magdalena, the widow of the master singer Hans Schellmann , who died in 1518, and since around 1542 with Katharina († December 26, 1568), the widow of the goldsmith Hans Sidelmann. After his death at the age of 66 he was buried in the Johannisfriedhof in Nuremberg . Of his sons, Johann Neudörffer the Younger inherited his legacy as master scribe, but did not match his father's achievements.

Honors

The Johann-Neudörffer Street in Bremen- Oberneuland was named in 2000 after him.

literature

Editions

  • Johann Neudörffer, Andreas Gulden: Des Johann Neudörfer, typist and arithmetic master in Nuremberg, news from artists and workers there from 1547, along with the continuation of Andreas Gulden. Edited from the manuscripts and with notes. by Georg Wolfgang Karl Lochner , reprint of the Vienna 1875 edition, Zeller, Osnabrück 1970.

Representations

Web links

Commons : Johann Neudörffer the Elder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ In his 1547 publication, Messages from the Most Noble Artists and Workers .
  2. ↑ Quoted from Doede: Schön write, Eine Kunst , Munich 1957, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Doede: Schön write, an art , Munich 1957, p. 21.
personal data
SURNAME Neudörffer, Johann the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neudörfer, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German typist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH October 1497
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1563
Place of death Nuremberg